Scouting and management

One of the really nice things about Scouting (in my opinion) is that we can introduce young people to concepts and methods normally reserved for adults attending very expensive training courses, where they are challenged to cross a lake using oil drums, or navigate across a mountain range.  At these events they are also introduced to managment planning tools.

Well, here’s one that we’ve developed - PATROL.  It’s an excellent, simple mnemonic to plan and deal with any problem the team may face.

P - Problem.  What’s being asked of the team, what’s gone wrong, hat needs to be achieved?
A- Assess. The need to get ideas asto how to solve the problem.  Ideally a team exrcise to map it ou
T- Tasks.  Once you know how ty solve the problem - what steps do you need to do - and in what order?
R - Responsibility.  Who needs to do what?  Specific allocation here, rather than just a vague hope
O - off you go! The actual doing bit.
L -Lead.  Someone needs to take responsibility for ensuring that the tasks ae being completed by the person asked to do the job.